Many automotive wheels on which tires are mounted are made from a light-alloy such as aluminum and magnesium alloys with a view to increasing fuel economy. These light-alloy wheels are made up of a rim portion and a disc portion, and a further weight reduction is attained by forming vent holes in the disc portion.
By making use of its metallic gloss, the light-alloy wheel generally represents its design only by a wheel main body without using a wheel cap. However, when the designed is made to be represented only by the wheel main body, in the event that a design surface is damaged, the wheel main body has to be replaced, which is uneconomical. In addition, there are some designs which cannot meet the strength that the wheel should maintain, and it is difficult to embody such designs.
Then, Patent Document No. 1 and Patent Document No. 2 propose decorative light-alloy wheel in which a decorative member made from a resin is detachably mounted on a wheel main body. For example, a decorative light-alloy wheel described in Patent Document No. 1, a recess is formed on a surface of a wheel main body including spoke portions, and a decorative member made from a resin is mounted in the recess in a replaceable fashion. In addition, in a decorative light-alloy wheel described in Patent Document No. 2, a decorative cover made from a resin is mounted on the wheel in a replaceable fashion by projecting portions which project from the decorative cover being fitted in through holes formed in spoke portions via elastic bushes.
In the decorative light-alloy wheel described in Patent Document No. 1, however, since the recess is formed in the spoke portions, although it is effective to reduce the weight, the depth of the recess is limited in consideration of strength, causing a problem that the degree of freedom in design is low. In addition, in the decorative light-alloy wheel above, in many cases, a surface of the decorative member is desired to become substantially level with a surface of the wheel main body when the decorative member is partially disposed. In this case, the spoke portions have to be made thinner to an extent equaling the thickness of the decorative member, and since the strength is decreased to such an extent that the spoke portions are thinned, a problem also arises that the degree of freedom in design is decreased.
Patent Document No. 1: JP-A-2003-159901
Patent Document No. 2: JP-A-2005-324799